(WASHINGTON) — First lady Melania Trump honored women from around the world during an award ceremony at the State Department, calling the eight honorees’ love “a powerful catalyst” for their work to fight injustice and advocate women and girls.
The first lady said she is inspired by “the women who are driven to speak out for justice, even though their voices are trembling,” and “the women who are motivated to rise up for their community when others remain indifferent.”
“Through their efforts, they instigate progress for all of humanity,” Trump said while speaking at the ceremony for the 19th International Women of Courage Awards.
The State Department says the awards are given to women who have “demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, and the empowerment of women and girls, and more, often at great personal risk and sacrifice.”
“Throughout my life, I have harnessed the power of love as a source of strength during challenging times,” Trump said. “Love has inspired me to embrace forgiveness, nurture empathy and exhibit bravery in the face of unforeseen obstacles.”
Among the recipients was Romanian Georgiana Pascu, who has been an advocate for institutionalized children and adults with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, working toward their deinstitutionalization over the past 25 years, according to the State Department.
“Georgiana is a watchdog who defends the dignity of Romanians whose voices cannot be heard,” Trump said. “She fearlessly enters facilities designated as care centers to rescue people with disabilities who are unwittingly held captive.”
Pascu “usually shows up unannounced and discovers the unimaginable: helpless adults and children bound, sedated, starving and, in extreme cases, dying,” she said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he “affirm[ed] the importance of protecting women and girls and promoting their well-being [as] American goals.”
“They also happen to be a strong goal of our president, President Donald Trump,” Rubio said.
He honored Amit Soussana, an Israeli woman kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
After surviving 55 days of captivity and her release, Rubio noted that Soussana “shared details of the sexual violence she endured as a hostage, which allowed medical professionals to document the atrocities that she suffered.”
Soussana said it is an “an honor I never imagined receiving and one I wish I didn’t have to accept under these circumstances,” calling the moment overdue for the Israeli hostages who remain in captivity.
“In captivity, I had no control over my body, no control over my life,” she said. “I resisted as best as I could, but it was not enough to stop what happened to me. The darkness was suffocating. Yet even in the darkness, there was one thing they could not have taken from me: the strength my mother instilled in me, the belief that we must always stand for what is right, no matter the cost.”
The awards honored eight women from as far as Papua New Guinea and Burkina Faso and included a Filipino woman who helps protect coral reefs from illegal fishing and a Sri Lankan investigative journalist whose work combats corruption, according to the State Department.
While the first lady’s appearance marked a rare public showing, she is no stranger to the International Women of Courage Awards. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted earlier Tuesday that this was the fifth year the first lady would participate in the award ceremony.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer were also in attendance.
Rubio noted that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was not in attendance, joking that she was “probably spying somewhere right now.”
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